Fury FC's faint playoff hopes extinguished with draw against Battery

A short-handed goal by substitute Heviel Cordoves in the 85th minute pulled the Charleston Battery into a 1-1 draw, and that was how the game before 5,587 witnesses for Fury FC's fifth tie in the past six games, eliminating the team from post-season contention.

That collective groan at 3:48 p.m. Sunday, emanating from the stands of TD Place stadium and heard throughout Lansdowne Park, could just as easily have been the sound of a bubble bursting for Ottawa Fury FC and its United Soccer League playoff hopes.

A short-handed goal by substitute Heviel Cordoves in the 85th minute pulled the Charleston Battery into a 1-1 draw, and that was how the game before 5,587 witnesses for Fury FC’s fifth tie in the past six games, eliminating the team from post-season contention.

All that’s left in a season that seemed to have such promise early on is next Sunday’s home game against FC Cincinnati and an Oct. 14 road game against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

Only a win against the Battery would have sustained Fury FC’s slim hopes. When Steevan Dos Santos scored his franchise-record ninth goal of the season just 16 minutes in, Ottawa seemed to be on its way.

Then, when Charleston’s Forrest Lasso was nailed with a red card and expulsion 60 minutes in, it seemed almost to good to be true for Fury FC.

Just as it had so many times during the first 29 games of the 32-game schedule, Fury FC (7-10-13) just couldn’t get the job done.

Now management and interim head coach Julian de Guzman can stop thinking of what might have been and start planning in earnest for 2018.

“When the ties start to feel like losses, that’s not a good thing,” said de Guzman, still looking for a first victory as head coach after 10 attempts since replacing Paul Dalglish in mid-August. “This is very hard to swallow at this moment. For me, it’s very disappointing we couldn’t come out of this with a win. A win could have given us more than just life.

“Perhaps this is about not just reassessing the team, but reassessing myself personally. We really have to go back to the drawing board.”

The maximum number of points Fury FC can compile this season is 40. Eighth-place Bethlehem Steel FC already has 40 and holds the tie-breaker advantage in victories, with its total of 11 far surpassing Ottawa’s seven, which is tied for second-last in the Eastern Conference and just one more than last-place Toronto FC II, which is really a developmental squad.

So Fury FC gets what it deserves.

An indication of how the season went from bad to worse was exemplified by the past two matches, maybe more so the circumstances in which they battled to back-to-back 1-1 draws against host Harrisburg City Islanders on Wednesday and again against Charleston.

Facing Harrisburg, a team also with faint hopes for the eighth and final playoff spot, Fury FC played the last 55 minutes of the match with a man advantage, but conceded a game-winning goal early in the second half.

Against Charleston (13-8-9), Fury FC played the final 30 minutes plus three minutes of stoppage time 11 men against 10 and again was minus-1 on the scoreboard.

If that’s not the sign of a team that doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs, nothing is.

“The amount of time we played with the man advantage and still couldn’t score goals … maybe it would have been best if the game stays at 11 versus 11,” de Guzman said. “Psychologically, you could see Charleston still playing like they had 11.

“The only thing I can think of that we could have done is: Do I ‘park a bus?,’ ” he added, meaning creating a wall of players in a defensive shell.

“No, you have to go for it,” de Guzman said. “The guys did everything they could. We fought and, when you look at it, Charleston executed perfectly on their goal.”

Sunday’s result left de Guzman’s record as interim head coach as zero victories, eight draws and two losses.

“At the end of the day, it’s on us,” Fury FC captain Carl Haworth said. “We want to get wins. We want to get a win for de Guzman. We owe it to him and we owe it to the fans.

“There’s still an element of pride to play for. We are professionals.”

Haworth was at a loss to explain how a team could play 85 minutes over two games with a man-advantage and still be outscored 2-0.

“It’s tough playing against 10 men,” he said. “(Harrisburg) scored the quick goal to start the second half, then it was tough to break them down.

“It seems like it’s been that kind of year for us. In a lot of our ties and one-goal losses, we were right in it, but we let way too many games get away from us.”

Fury FC’s Nick DePuy tries to get the ball down field away from Battery players Forrest Lasso, left, and Taylor Mueller at TD Place stadium on Sunday. Ashley Fraser/PostmediaAshley Fraser /
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